IFC Article: Adapt This: “The Expendable One” by Jason Burns

A man who can’t die makes the perfect crime-fighter in this little-known indie comic, but his story could also make a good movie, too.

With Hollywood turning more of its attention to the world of graphic novels for inspiration, I’ll cast the spotlight on a new comic book each week that has the potential to pack a theater or keep you glued to your television screens. At the end of some “Adapt This” columns, you’ll also find thoughts from various comic creators and other industry experts about the books they’d like to see make the jump from page to screen.

The Premise: Twigs Dupree is just another average guy with a below-average lifestyle, but all that changes when accidentally becomes a test subject for a chemical that makes him immortal. After discovering that he’s unable to die no matter how hard he tries, he decides to fight crime with the help of his amateur scientist pal and a police radio scanner. His new, weird life takes an even weirder turn when he gets caught up in the search for a killer who might actually be a werewolf.

The Pitch: A potent mix of gory horror and clever humor, The Expendable One is the sort of comic that echoes the feel of such films as the “Evil Dead” movies and the recent “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil,” which manage to be both scary and funny. The story also shares a lot of similarities with the tone of early Dylan Dog comics (and to a lesser extent, the disappointing “Dylan Dog” movie), in that it doesn’t shy away from presenting gory imagery one moment and sex appeal the next.

While the comic itself is a fairly under-the-radar project, Burns has created a nice little introduction for his hero that serves as both his first big adventure and origin story. The cast of characters in The Expendable One is relatively small, and the comic is short enough to give a screenwriter room to expand and tweak certain elements on its way from page to screen.

Any adaptation of the book also benefits from the fact that the characters of Twigs and his wannabe-scientist pal Jerry are so loosely defined in the original 2006 series that the net can be cast far and wide for potential actors.